UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

Annie, Seated

Impression: British Museum
British Museum
(1872-07-13-402)
Number: 32
Date: 1858/1859
Medium: etching and drypoint
Size: 130 x 97 mm
Signed: 'Whistler.-' at lower left
Inscribed: ' "Annie-" ' at lower centre (2-final)
Set/Publication: no
No. of States: 3
Known impressions: 58
Catalogues: K.30; M.29; T.50; W.24
Impressions taken from this plate  (58)

KEYWORD

girl seated, portrait.

TITLE

There are small variations in the titles for this etching by Whistler and later cataloguers, as follows:


'Annie' (1859, Whistler). 4
'Annie, seated' (1872, British Museum). 5
'Annie Seated' (1874, Ralph Thomas, Jr (1840-1876)). 6
' “Annie” ' (1881, Union League Club). 7
'Annie, Seated' (1886, Frederick Wedmore (1844-1921)). 8


Although the name 'Annie' was inscribed by Whistler on the plate, this title cannot be used, because another etching, Annie [7], was published with this title by Whistler in the 'French Set' in 1858. To distinguish it from the published plate, most later cataloguers called the etching 'Annie Seated' or, adding a comma, 'Annie, Seated', which is the preferred version.

4: Inscribed on the plate.

5: B.M. Print room Register of Purchases ..., 1872.

6: Thomas 1874 (cat. no. 50).

7: New York 1881 (cat. nos. 35-6).

8: Wedmore 1886 A (cat. no. 24)

DESCRIPTION

Annie is sitting on a round backed wooden chair, facing the viewer, with her elbow leaning on the central cross-bar of the chair at left. Her head is slightly bowed, with shoulder-length hair falling in waves from a central parting. She is wearing a knee-length dress with a full skirt, and loose sleeves gathered at the wrist. Her legs are barely indicated. She is lit from the front, with shadows falling behind and to the left.

SITTER

Impression: K0100403

Annie [7].
The sitter is Annie Harriet Haden (1848-1937). She was nine or ten years old. Other etched portraits of her are Annie Haden with Books [6], Annie [7] (seen above) and Annie Haden [67]. She appears in a similar pose and dress in a group portrait with her mother, Deborah Delano Haden (1825-1908), and a friend, in the oil painting Harmony in Green and Rose: The Music Room [y034], reproduced below.
Comparative image
Harmony in Green and Rose: The Music Room [y034], oil, 1860/1861,
Freer Gallery of Art, Washington DC.